Tracy Allen is Co-coordinator for the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Maine (ROC-Maine), a new workers' center dedicated to improving on-the-job conditions for restaurant workers and to increasing public recognition of the contributions that restaurant workers make to Maine's culture and economy. Toward this end, ROC-Maine conducts research and advocates for policies, promotes responsible restaurant owners, provides free job training to restaurant workers, and provides support and education around workers' rights. Ms. Allen grew up in Livermore Falls and graduated from the University of Maine, where she studied Political Science and examined worker center models in her thesis. In the past, she has worked for PICA (Peace through Interamerican Community Action) as an Intern and as Facilitator for PICA's youth branch, Youth Adelantando, in Bangor, Maine.

Susan Bryant, Professor, City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, received both a J.D. and an LL.M. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Prettyman Fellow, and began her practice as a lawyer at the Defender Association of Philadelphia. An early advocate of clinical education as a pedagogical program for teaching law students the practice of law, Professor Bryant has served as a consultant and trainer for the Association of American Law Schools, the Legal Services Corporation, and the United States Department of Education. She has played an important role at the CUNY Law School developing and directing our nationally-recognized clinical programs, as well as teaching in both the Battered Women's Rights and the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Clinics.

In recognition of her innovative work designing and teaching in clinics, Professor Bryant was awarded the Association of American Law Schools Section on Clinical Legal Education Award for outstanding contributions to clinical legal education and has served as Co-President of the Clinical Law Education Association (CLEA). Her influential article, "The Five Habits: Building Cross-Cultural Competence in Lawyers," which appeared in the Clinical Law Review, has been widely cited, and she is a frequent lecturer and panelist on pedagogy, clinical education, and cross-cultural lawyering. She has lectured on the latter for Legal Aid and Legal Services lawyers in the tri-state area, as well as judges at the New York State Judicial Institute.

Susan Calkins started at Pine Tree Legal Assistance in 1970 as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow assigned to the Presque Isle office following her graduation from the University of Maine School of Law. From 1973 to 1976 she was the Executive Director of Pine Tree, and she later served as the Director of Litigation and Training. She left Pine Tree in 1980 for the Maine District Court. She was the Chief Judge of the District Court for five years before her appointment to the Superior Court. In 1998, she was appointed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court where she served until her retirement in 2007.

Howard H. Dana, Jr. was an Associate Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court until his retirement from the Court on March 2, 2007. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1962 and received a law degree and masters in public administration from Cornell in 1966 and a masters in judicial process from the University of Virginia in 1998. Following a clerkship with Judge Edward T. Gignoux, he practiced law with Verrill & Dana primarily in the field of corporate litigation until joining the Court. While a lawyer, he was appointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush to serve on the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation (1982, 1990-93). Until his retirement, he served as the vice-chair of the Maine Justice Action Group (JAG), the chair of the Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, and the Court’s liaison to the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection. He recently completed a term on the ABA Board of Governors representing District One (Me., N.H., Vt., and R.I.). Before his election to the Board, Dana was a member of the ABA Commission on Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (1988-1992), the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (1994-1997), and the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. Most recently, he was the chair of the ABA Task Force on Access to Justice. Justice Dana is a member of the American Law Institute. Upon his retirement from the Court, Howard returned to Verrill Dana, OOP as counsel. He received an Honorary Degree from the Portland School of Art (1985); the ABA Pro Bono Publico Award (1985); the Maine State Bar Association Public Service Award (1986); the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Arthur Von Briesen Award (1993); and the Gordon S. Hargraves Freedom Prize, Bowdoin College (1997).

Carla Dickstein is Senior Vice-President for Research & Policy Development at Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), based in Wiscasset, Maine. Over the last five years she has worked on predatory lending and foreclosure research and policy issues. In 2006 she co-authored a report Predatory Mortgages in Maine that led to passage of Maine’s anti-predatory lending law passed in June 2007 and in 2009 worked on successful passage of Maine’s foreclosure prevention bill. Prior to coming to CEI she was on the faculty at West Virginia University’s Regional Research Institute and the West Virginia University Extension Service. She holds a B.A. from Smith College, a Masters in Planning from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Peter Edelman is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and poverty law. On the faculty since 1982, he has also served in all three
branches of government. During President Clinton’s first term he was Counselor to HHS
Secretary Donna Shalala and then Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

Professor Edelman has been Associate Dean of the Law Center, Director of the New York State
Division for Youth, and Vice President of the University of Massachusetts. He was a Legislative
Assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Issues Director for Senator Edward Kennedy's 1980
Presidential campaign. Prior to working for RFK, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Arthur J.
Goldberg and before that for Judge Henry J. Friendly on the U.S. Court of Appeals. He also
served as Special Assistant to U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Douglas, and was a partner
in the law firm of Foley & Lardner.

Mr. Edelman’s book, Searching for America’s Heart: RFK and the Renewal of Hope, is available in paperback from the Georgetown University Press. He has written extensively on poverty, constitutional law, and children and youth. His article in the Atlantic Monthly, entitled “The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done,” received the Harry Chapin Media Award. With Harry
Holzer and the late Paul Offner, he recently co-authored Reconnecting Disconnected Young
Men, published by Urban Institute Press.

Professor Edelman has chaired and been a board member of numerous organizations and
foundations. He is currently chair of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, board president of the New Israel Fund, board chair of the National Center for Youth Law, and a board member of the Public Welfare Foundation, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and a half dozen other nonprofit organizations.

Mr. Edelman has been a United States-Japan Leadership Program Fellow, was the J. Skelly
Wright Memorial Fellow at Yale Law School, and has received numerous honors and awards for
his work, including the William J. Brennan, Jr. Award from the D.C. Bar in 2005. He grew up in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, and graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Ric Hanley is Chief Operating Officer at Spring Harbor Hospital, with oversight responsibility for the organization’s human resources, legal/risk management; and quality management functions, among other responsibilities. He also is the organization’s Corporate Responsibility Officer. He serves as a VP at Maine Mental Health Partners, the parent organization of Spring Harbor Hospital, and is Relationship Manager for the management contract with the Maine Medical Center Department of Psychiatry. Prior to joining Spring Harbor Hospital in 1999, Ric was CEO of Downeast Community Hospital in Machias. His mental health background also includes six years as Chief Operating Officer for the former Augusta Mental Health Institute, where he also directed the civil commitment unit from 1980-1985. Ric is a graduate of Bates College, and holds Master’s Degrees from the University of Maine (Guidance & Counseling) and the University of Minnesota (Healthcare Administration). He is one of only 7,500 individuals worldwide to achieve Fellow status in the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).

Christine Hastedt is a Public Policy Specialist at Maine Equal Justice Partners. Christine has been a legal advocate for low-income people for over 30 years. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Kutak-Dodds Award from the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association and the Bernard Lown Humanitarian Award from the University of Maine at Orono. In 1996 Christine co-founded Maine Equal Justice Partners and Maine Equal Justice Project. She is responsible for policy research and analysis, education and outreach, and legislative and administrative advocacy largely in the areas of Medicaid and other public health policy, TANF, Food Stamps, and issues affecting low wage workers. Prior to founding MEJP, Christine worked for Pine Tree Legal Assistance for 20 years, where she represented low income clients in administrative and legislative proceedings. Christine received a B.A. from the University of Maine in 1968.

Nan Heald has served as the Executive Director of Pine Tree Legal Assistance since 1990. Ms. Heald grew up in Oquossoc Maine, later graduating from Smith College in 1977 and George Washington University School of Law in 1980. She worked for the federal government and a private law firm before joining the staff of Pine Tree in 1985 as the staff attorney in its Native American Unit.

Geoff Houghton has been following his passion for brewing and pubs for over 20 years here in Maine. He was a minimum wage brewer for Gritty McDuff's and Geary Brewing Co. for several years before bartending for a decade or so. In 2000, Houghton opened his own brewpub in Hallowell called The Liberal Cup, followed by a 2nd venture in 2008 in Saco called The Run of the Mill Public House and Brewery. Between the two places, he currently employs 105 people, with a payroll obligation exceeding $30,000 a week.

André G. Janelle is the resident district court judge for York County. He was appointed to the bench in September 1986. Prior to becoming a judge he served as legislative counsel to Governor Joseph E. Brennan and also served as an assistant attorney general for the State of Maine. Judge Janelle is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law and College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts.

Recently, Judge Janelle was on administrative assignment to assist the Court in implementing the Foreclosure Diversion Mediation Project established by LD 1418.

Justice Jon D. Levy is the Chair of the Maine Justice Action Group. He is a graduate of Syracuse University, and the West Virginia University College of Law. Following law school, Justice Levy served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr., in the Southern District of West Virginia. In 1981 Justice Levy was appointed by U.S. District Judge William Justice to serve in the position of court monitor in the Texas prison conditions class action, Ruiz v. Estelle. In 1982, Justice Levy and his wife Miriam moved to Maine and he commenced a private law practice in York. He authored the book Maine Family Law (Lexis Law Publishing), which was first published in 1988. Justice Levy was nominated by Governor Angus King to serve as a Judge of the Maine District Court in 1995. As a District Court Judge, Justice Levy was one of the presiding judges in the Juvenile Drug Treatment Court. From 1996 to 2000, Justice Levy served as the chairperson of the Maine Family Law Advisory Commission. Justice Levy was appointed to serve as Deputy Chief Judge of the District Court in 2000, and as Chief Judge of the District Court in 2001. As Chief Judge, Justice Levy initiated the development of Maine’s domestic violence courts. He received the Maine State Bar Association’s Family Law Achievement Award in 2001 and the York County Bar Association’s Outstanding Member Award in 2006. In 2002, Justice Levy was nominated by Governor Angus King to serve as an Associate Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Justice Levy is the Supreme Judicial Court’s liaison to the Committee on Judicial Responsibility and Disability, the Maine Family Law Advisory Commission, the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, and the Maine Civil Legal Services Fund Commission.

Sara Meerse is the directing attorney of KIDS LEGAL, a statewide project at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, and represents children and their families in matters affecting low income children and youths in Maine, provides consultations to professionals within Maine who are working with low-income children, and conducts various trainings throughout the state on issues affecting low-income children in Maine. She graduated magna cum laude from the University at Buffalo Schools of Law and Social Work, with her JD and MSW, concentrating in child welfare/family systems and education law. She began her legal career as one of 25 national Skadden Fellows selected in 1996 at Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Aroostook County, where she provided advocacy on behalf of families with children in education, housing and medical matters. When her fellowship ended, she continued to work at Pine Tree Legal Assistance as a staff attorney in the Bangor and Portland offices providing general legal services to low-income Mainers in housing, public benefits, family law, and education matters. She has been a rostered guardian ad litem since 2001.

Elizabeth (Libby) H. Mitchell was unanimously elected as Maine's 113th Senate President on December 3, 2008. She has the distinct honor of being the first woman in America to serve as both the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House. Senator Mitchell represents Senate District 24, which includes Augusta, China, Oakland, Sidney and Vassalboro. Senator Mitchell was first elected to the Maine Legislature in 1974. Her legislative service includes nine terms in the House and three in the Senate. Senator Mitchell has been a long-time champion of affordable housing in Maine, both as the former director of the Maine State Housing Authority and as a leader in the state legislature. During the last session of the legislature, Senator Mitchell was the prime sponsor of a historic $30 million green affordable housing bond bill and a leader in the effort to address Maine’s growing foreclosure problems. Senator Mitchell practices law at the firm of Mitchell and Davis in Augusta. She and her husband Jim live in Vassalboro.

Bob Mittel worked at Pine Tree Legal Assistance from September, 1968 to October, 1976. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Hastings College of Law. He has served on the boards of the Maine Bar Foundation, the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project and Pine Tree Legal Assistance. For the past 30 years, he has been a partner in the law firm of Mittel Asen LLC where he specializes in civil litigation.

Samantha Morton is Executive Director of the Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston (MLP | Boston) at Boston Medical Center, the Founding Site of the national MLP Network. MLP | Boston allies legal and health care professionals to promote health and well-being through legal
advocacy. During her initial tenure as an MLP | Boston staff attorney, Ms. Morton focused on immigration advocacy and pro bono service delivery strategies. She is an expert on legal priority-setting, pro bono service delivery, and ethics and confidentiality challenges in the medical-legal partnership context. Before joining MLP | Boston in 2003, Ms. Morton was
a litigation associate at WilmerHale (formerly Hale and Dorr LLP), and served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Morton A. Brody of the United States District Court for the District of Maine. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Law and Cornell University.

Eric Nelson has been the directing attorney of Pine Tree Legal Assistance’s Farmworker Unit since 1991. He also directs Pine Tree's Native American Unit and Employment Law Project. Previously, Eric worked as a staff attorney for the Maine State Employees Association, SEIU Local 1989, and in the Presque Isle office of Pine Tree Legal. He is a graduate of North Park University in Chicago and Northeastern University School of Law.

Harold Pachios is a Founding Partner of the Portland-based law firm Preti Flaherty and practices primarily Business and Regulatory Law. Harold was born in New Haven, Connecticut; grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Maine; and graduated from Princeton University in 1959. He served as a lieutenant aboard a U.S. Navy transport ship and then moved to Washington, D.C., where he earned a law degree from Georgetown University. His distinguished career has carried him from the White House to the U.S. Department of Transportation, and through several national political campaigns, most recently as Maine State Counsel for the 2008 Obama-Biden Campaign. Harold was Associate White House Press Secretary under President Lyndon B. Johnson, serving as principal aide to White House Press Secretary Bill Moyers from 1965 to 1967. He came to the White House after serving as Deputy Congressional Liaison for the Peace Corps during that agency's earliest years, a post in which he advised members of Congress and assisted the program's director, Sargent Shriver, on Congressional matters. He also assisted the task force that wrote the Federal legislation creating the Office of Equal Opportunity, helping to develop legislation to launch Head Start, VISTA and Job Corps, among other programs. Harold left the White House in 1967 to become attorney-advisor to the Secretary of the newly created Department of Transportation and later returned to Maine to practice law.

Gregory Payne is the Coordinator of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition and a Development Officer at Avesta Housing in Portland. He assumed both roles in January of 2007.

Mr. Payne has more than 13 years of experience in issues related to housing and homelessness, including work at the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless and the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. Following his graduation from law school, he worked in Boston for five years as a real estate attorney specializing in affordable housing.

Mr. Payne earned a B.A. in Economics from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston.

Peter Pitegoff is Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Maine School of Law in Portland, Maine. He has worked and written extensively in the areas of economic development, labor and industrial organization, nonprofit corporations, employee ownership and alternative enterprise forms, welfare and employment policy, and urban revitalization. He has taught corporation law, business transactions, labor policy, community development law, nonprofit organization law, and legal ethics.

Pitegoff joined the Maine Law School in 2005 after seventeen years as a law professor at the University at Buffalo Law School, State University of New York (SUNY), where he also served for seven years as vice dean for academic affairs. At SUNY-Buffalo, he founded a law school clinical program in community economic development law, which has served as a model for transactional clinics at numerous law schools.

Prior to his academic career, Pitegoff was legal counsel for the ICA Group in Boston, assisting community economic development initiatives nationwide, and taught on an adjunct basis at Harvard Law School and at New York University School of Law. He previously was a community organizer in eastern North Carolina and in Oakland, California. Pitegoff is a 1975 graduate of Brown University and a 1981 graduate of New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden scholar.

Chet Randall is a staff attorney at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, a statewide legal services agency providing free legal assistance to low-income Mainers. Since joining Pine Tree Legal Assistance in 2002, Chet’s practice has included work in the areas of landlord tenant law, special education law, public benefits, and housing discrimination. Over the last three years, his practice grew to include advocacy for victims of predatory lending and homeowners faced with foreclosure. In the last year those efforts contributed to the formation of the Foreclosure Prevention Project at Pine Tree Legal Assistance. Chet is the coordinator for the new Foreclosure Prevention Project at Pine Tree Legal Assistance providing direct legal services, community education, and outreach. Chet also currently serves as the Chairperson for the Judicial Branch Commission on Foreclosure Diversion. He graduated from Northeastern School of Law in 1996.

Christopher Stenberg has served as director of Ambulatory Pediatrics at The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital since 1998. In addition, he holds a faculty position as a clinical assistant professor at the University Of Vermont College Of Medicine. He serves on a number of committees and groups within the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital and Maine Medical Center, as well as MaineHealth’s Community Health Improvement Council. Dr. Stenberg is the recipient of The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital: Resident’s Award for General Pediatrician of the Year in 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2009. Dr. Stenberg is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Pediatrics Maine Chapter and currently serves as Vice-President. He is a board member of Kids Legal and the Maine Children’s Alliance. Dr. Stenberg is a graduate of the University of Auckland, School of Medicine in Auckland, New Zealand with degrees in medicine and human biology. His training positions have taken him from Hamilton, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia and Rochester, New York..

Christopher St. John became the Executive Director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy in 1994. From 1975-1994 he worked for Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Augusta, Maine. From 1981-1994 he was a registered lobbyist at the Maine State Legislature, where he represented low-income groups on such issues as health care, welfare, unemployment insurance, utility regulation, and taxation. He studied at Harvard College, the London School of Oriental and African Studies, and the Yale Law School. He is on the Board of Mainewatch Institute.

Camille Holmes Wood, Director of the Race Equity and Racial Justice Initiative, leads NLADA’s efforts to expand the capacity and commitment of public defense, civil legal aid and client advocates to promote race equity as part of the core strategies in their work. Her work at the national, regional and local levels advances problem solving strategies for creating sustainable change in low income and marginalized communities. Since joining the domestic legal aid community in 2001, she has promoted collaborations among civil legal aid, civil rights, racial justice and community based advocates and developed conceptual frameworks to help advocates adopt community lawyering approaches, leadership skills and racial justice advocacy approaches. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Ms. Wood is a resident of Washington, D.C. Prior to her current position, she served as NLADA’s Director of Training and Community Education. She came to NLADA from the Center of Law and Social Policy where she worked as a Senior Staff Attorney and Co-Director for the Project for the Future of Equal Justice. Ms. Wood formerly served as Executive Director of the Southern Africa Legal Services and Legal Education Project (SALSLEP), a corporate attorney at the D.C. law firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr and a law clerk for the Honorable Damon J. Keith on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is a founding member of the Jamestown Project at Yale and a past-President of the Board of Directors of the Washington Council of Lawyers, a voluntary bar association promoting pro bono and public interest law in the District of Columbia. She currently serves on the Board of Director of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School.